John Kerry puts a “Kick me” sign on America

Iran is actively recruiting in Latin America and using Latin American countries to avoid UN sanctions, Hezbollah’s making deals with the drug cartels, Russia’s doing maneuvers in the Caribbean, Cuba’s shipping armaments in North Korean vessels. So what does the Secretary of State do?

The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over. (Applause.) The relationship – that’s worth applauding. That’s not a bad thing. (Applause.) The relationship that we seek and that we have worked hard to foster is not about a United States declaration about how and when it will intervene in the affairs of other American states. It’s about all of our countries viewing one another as equals, sharing responsibilities, cooperating on security issues, and adhering not to doctrine, but to the decisions that we make as partners to advance the values and the interests that we share.

Monday’s comments receivedwide play in the Latin American press. Venezuela’s El Universal, for example,noted the “end of the U.S. interventionist policy” in the region. Some read too much into it, mistakenly celebrating the end of the “error” of the Monroe Doctrine (instead of the “era”).